“Microsoft Monday" is a weekly column that focuses on all things Microsoft. This week, Microsoft Monday includes details about Bill Gates retaining the #1 spot on the Forbes 400 2017 Richest Americans and investing $1.7 billion in public education, 13 original Xbox One games being added to the backwards compatibility list, the Surface Book 2 announcement, the return of the Classic IntelliMouse, Xbox setting a Guinness World Record, the delay of “Age of Empires: Definitive Edition,” Windows 10 Fall Creators Update rolling out, Symantec switching to Azure and much more!

Bill Gates Is #1 In The Forbes 400 List Of Richest Americans For The 24th Consecutive Year

Last week, Forbes Assistant Managing Editors Luisa Kroll and Kerry Dolan published the Forbes 400 2017 list and Bill Gate was named the richest person American for the 24th consecutive year. And the price of admission to the “country’s most exclusive club jumped nearly 18%,” meaning the minimum net worth to join The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans is a record $2 billion — up from $1.7 billion a year ago. The total net worth of The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans went up to $2.7 trillion from $2.4 trillion a year ago and the average net worth increased to $6.7 billion from $6 billion. And everyone in the top 10 became at least $1 billion richer in the past year. Bill Gates is now worth $89 billion, up $8 billion compared to a year ago.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is worth $81.5 billion, up $14.5 billion from a year ago. And Warren Buffett increased $12.5 billion. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg saw the biggest growth as his wealth increased $15.5 billion. President Donald Trump took a big hit this year though:

“A tough New York real estate market, particularly for retail locations; a costly lawsuit and an expensive presidential campaign all contributed to the declining fortune of the 45th president,” wrote Kroll and Dolan. According to the report, President Donald Trump dropped $600 million to $3.1 billion. All of these estimates are based on stock prices on September 22nd and the changes can be tracked at forbes.com/forbes-400.

Bill Gates Is Investing Over $1.7 Billion In Public Education

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is going to be investing over $1.7 billion in public schools through The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to The Washington Post. So far, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested at least $3.4 billion in public education donations in the U.S., mostly to build on Common Core State Standards.

“Every student should get a great public education and graduate with skills to succeed in the marketplace,” said Gates at the Council of the Great City Schools conference in Cleveland via The Washington Post. “The role of philanthropy here is not to be the primary funder, but rather to fund pilots, to fund new ideas, to let people — it’s always the educators coming up with the ideas — to let them try them out and see what really works super well and get those to scale.”

Microsoft Announces Surface Book 2

Last week, Microsoft announced the Surface Book 2. There is a 13.5-inch and a 15-inch version of the Surface Book 2. Both models can be configured with more powerful hardware.

The hinge on the new Surface Book 2 has been improved so that it does not wobble as much when you touch the screen. And the newer processors increases efficiency so the battery will last up to 17 hours in laptop mode and 5 hours in tablet mode. Both models have one USB-C port, two USB-A ports and an SDXC card reader. Pre-orders begin November 9th and both models will start shipping on November 16th.

Microsoft Surface Dial Now Works On Adobe Photoshop

About a year ago, Microsoft announced the Surface Dial device. And last week, Adobe updated Photoshop to support more Surface Dial functions than zooming in and out. Now the Surface Dial can be used to adjust the brush settings. According to The Verge, the Surface Dial can be used to adjust the “size, opacity, hardness, flow and smoothing.”

Microsoft Brings Back The Classic IntelliMouse

Microsoft

Microsoft Classic IntelliMouse

Microsoft has brought back the Classic IntelliMouse. The Classic IntelliMouse is a wired mouse that has elements of design similar to the IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0, which was released over 10 years ago. The Classic IntelliMouse is USB 2.0 full speed compatible, hits 1000 reports per second, the ability to track on glass and it has 5 buttons.

According to Microsoft's annual shareholder proxy filing, CEO Satya Nadella received over $20 million in cash and stock due to a solid performance as the head of the company. The pay package is based on the “Product & strategy,” “Customers & stakeholders” and “Culture & organizational leadership” weighted performance categories. By performing well in those three areas, he received a $7,032,406 non-equity incentive plan compensation bonus in addition to his $1,450,000 base salary this year.

Nadella scored the highest for “Culture & organizational” leadership. Nadella received 145% score for that assessment as employee “sentiment on company direction and leadership is also high and improving.” In the “Customers & stakeholders” performance category, Nadella received a 125% score as Microsoft is perceived as an innovator and leader in the cloud plus many stakeholders positively recognized programs like the Autism Program, Rural Broadband initiative and call for a Digital Geneva Convention. And Nadella received a 100% performance score for the “Product & strategy” assessment for driving commercial cloud annualized revenue rate to $18.9 billion and growing Azure revenue 99%.

Nadella was awarded $11,434,557 in Microsoft stock. And he received $97,189 as miscellaneous compensation thus totaling $20,014,152. Amy Hood, CFO and EVP, received $11,582,144 for the year. Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and President of Global Sales, Marketing and Operations, received $18,294,616. Margaret L. Johnson, EVP of Business Development, received $6,880,955. And Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, received $10,319,735.

The Xbox Sets The Guinness World Record For “Highest-Altitude Gaming Stream”

To celebrate the release of Super Lucky’s Tale on November 7th, the Xbox team created a custom hot air balloon that took off at The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. On the Mixer Xbox Channel, people were able to see a live stream at 1,200 feet in the sky. This set the Guinness World Records for “Highest-altitude Gaming Stream.” The live stream was hosted by Microsoft Studios Community Manager Rukari Austin. Super Lucky’s Tale is an Xbox Play Anywhere game so people that buy it can play it on Xbox gaming consoles and PCs.

Google Is Launching An Anti-Virus Feature On Windows

Google is launching a feature that can detect when Google Chrome browser settings have been changed without user permission and will offer an option to reset the changes. And Google Chrome on Windows will be able to find “suspicious or unwanted programs on your Windows computer.” Through the “Chrome Cleanup” feature, Google will provide you an option to remove them. Google partnered with IT security company ESET to create the feature.

Microsoft To Revamp Outlook’s Design For Windows And Mac

Microsoft is currently redesigning Outlook for Windows and Mac. The redesign was previewed at the Ignite conference last month. And the redesign will make the desktop versions of Outlook look similar to Outlook for iOS. Outlook will also have a customizable ribbon so you can make the navigation tailored to your preferences.

According to The Verge, Outlook for Mac will also have improvements for search and calendar. Search will be faster and easier to access as it will have a dedicated box in the top right corner of the app.

Microsoft Is Delaying “Age of Empires: Definitive Edition” To 2018

Originally, Microsoft was planning to release Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on October 19th. However, the game has been pushed back to early 2018.

The developers decided to push back the release in order to invite thousands of more gamers to join the closed beta for additional testing.

Symantec To Deliver Norton Through Microsoft Azure

Symantec, a company that develops security, storage and backup software, is going to be delivering its Norton applications to customers via the Microsoft Azure cloud. “Working with the Microsoft team, Symantec designed and developed new cloud services, and migrated 105 critical consumer digital safety capabilities to Azure, such as reputation scoring, security telemetry and advanced threat protection. In addition, Symantec set up real-time dashboards to track and report financial, operational and security metrics to govern adoption and utilization,” said Microsoft in an announcement.